This Saturday night, I am hitting the road headed for Chicago, where I will be stationed semi-permanently for the next few years studying and working.
I've been living this way for some time now: venturing from city to city, staying long enough to learn and grow and hurt and love, and then I try (though never quite succeed) to box it all up, leaving much behind but always bringing away a suitcase and a heart too full of things I can't let go.
I wanted this lifestyle for myself. It is romantic and there is so much to be learned and it can really push you as a human being. But it is also lonely sometimes, knowing that the only constant thing (person, relationship) in my adult life has been me, myself. I have met and shared great relationships with people of the highest caliber, but in the end I always have to go. And the end: If starting a new life is one of the most thrilling sensations there is, having to leave it behind is, in itself, a tiny death.
I wonder how things will be in Chicago? I'll be living with my Grandma for these first three months, and I literally cannot imagine what it will be like. I will tell you about her later.
All that's for sure is that I will be very busy, because I am compulsively intent on perfecting my art of living (it is quite time consuming!).
I hope to be writing more and sharing with you the more quiet and exciting nuggets of wisdom I find on my journey.

from my first week living in seoul, july 2007. this little girl had no idea what she was in for